Deyongs Limited has been trading in household textiles since 1876, producing luxury bathroom towels, beautiful bed linen and throws. The company is now under the guidance of the 7th generation of Deyongs in Daniel and Oliver Deyong. I caught up with Daniel Deyong to find out more about this long standing family business…. Hi Daniel….

Hello. My name is  Daniel Deyong and I am the joint Managing Director for Deyongs Ltd. I am 46 years old, married with 2 teenage boys, our cavapoo Hudson and our cat Jazz.

Your family company, Deyongs Ltd has been trading in home textiles since 1846 … you are the 7th generation of Deyongs … growing up did you automatically want to follow in the family footsteps or did you inspire to follow a different career path?

Growing up was always spending summers coming to work with “dad” seeing other members of the family involved at the time, the warehouse was a great place for hide and seek! My initial career choice was always design and leaving school I pursued that course and found a great company who did exhibition design and display and also a graphic design studio. However in the late 80’s when the recession hit, Design studios went inhouse and the company I worked for collapsed and I found myself working the summer months in the family business doing all sorts to earn some money to pay for a holiday. I returned from the Mediterranean refreshed and eager to continue working for the family where I decided my creative flair could spark something new.

I am particularly fond of the Freewheel Beach Towel, The Egyptian Cotton Mudeford Beach Towel; luxurious bed linen, especially the Lyndon Company Printed Duvet Bed Linen; and your very warm looking throws. To date, what has been the most popular items/products/brands ?

Deyongs have always been known for their towels. I guess you can only judge success by numbers, our plain dyed Bliss Pima Cotton towels are very well known and popular not just in the UK but abroad. Very close behind that would be our throws, we sell out every winter, maybe next year we will sell more throws than towels!

What’s your most favourite item in your collection?

My personal favourite is The Lyndon Company 400 Thread Count Sateen Cotton bedding. It says Hotel, it feels silky soft, keeping you warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Technically I haven’t felt a sheet on the market like it and I am always in the stores comparing.

When picking items to add to your collections, do you select by what has proved popular in the past, current trends, customer requests, personal preferences or all of those things?

We have certain briefs from our store group buyers that we work from. We also pay attention to the trends and forecasts coming through making sure not to miss out on the colour or style of the season and of course certain qualities that have proven successful over the years can always be enhanced with a new colour and twist. At the moment we are all about the environment and well being, constantly striving to bring new innovation into textiles.

As you also supply to retail shops in the UK, Europe, Middle East and Australia – is there a colour that is universally popular at the moment in textiles, or is there a marked difference in colour demand between the 4 different areas?

Ha, white will never go out of fashion! it works in every quarter of the world, but when it comes to colour, then yes different countries certainly have different colours and styles, right now the UK is huge with silver and grey tones

As Deyongs is based in the UK, are your products on the website available to purchase worldwide?

Yes all our products can be bought on our website and we ship internationally worldwide, only last week shipping to New Zealand, Japan and Singapore! We also ship next day to anywhere in the UK and only 2 days to anywhere in the USA.

Hypothetically speaking, if you were able to visit any place in the world to feature a new brand/collection to your website, where would you go and why?

I have always wanted to photograph our beach towels in Mauritius, some of the best beaches in the world, the heritage of the island and the changes of its independence are fascinating, to the food and extremely friendly population makes its a place you just want to visit again and again.

Are there any new products in the pipeline for 2019?

Yes we always have new ranges, not only in towels, we will release our winter 19 throw collection at the end of the summer and new additions to our bedlinen collections. Right now we are working on products that give Well Being, kind to your body and kind to the environment.

Personal now – what outfits and shoes would you normally be found wearing?

Since I spend a lot of time in the gym I do live in jogging pants, t-shirts and trainers during the weekend, if out over the weekend I am very much dark jeans, black polos, keeping it classic and not an embarrassing dad!

Do you have any favourite shops or online sites ?

I do shop at urban outfitters and banana republic, Timberland and Ralph are my go too brands that fit me well. My kids are constantly giving me fashion advice!

What’s next on your clothes/shoe wish list?

New trainers! I do seem to go through them! Also a smarter pair of shoes for the summer for going out, something suede I think.

Boots or Shoes?

Timberlands in the winter, my north face boots for trekking, they have been all over the world with me when trekking.

Links you would like to share e.g. website/facebook etc so that readers can find out more about Deyongs.

www.deyongs.com is our website https://www.facebook.com/Deyongs1846/ for our Facebook; our Instagram is @deyongs1846

Thanks Daniel! I must admit shades of grey are my favourite home colour palette with bright colours co ordinating – yellows, turquoise, lilacs, black, silver …. and the colours and styles you offer are simply stunning! I hope Daniel’s products have given you food for thought too, dear reader!

Linda x

All photographs have been published with kind permission from Daniel Deyong.